Potion of unholy water
A potion of unholy water (unidentified, a "cursed clear potion" if BUC is known) is the cursed version of the potion of water; it has the inverse effect of holy water: * Dip a blessed object into unholy water to make it uncursed. * Dip an uncursed object into unholy water to make it cursed. * Dip a cursed object into unholy water, and you get message "Interesting..."; the potion is not consumed. Thus, using the #dip command together with unholy water allows you to make cursed objects. Quaffing If you are chaotic or polymorphed to an undead creation or a demon, "You feel quite proud of yourself." You heal 2d6 hit points and exercise constitution. Otherwise, * if you are lawful, "This burns like acid!" You lose 2d6 hit points and abuse constitution. * if you are neutral, "You feel full of dread." You abuse constitution. Possible uses In general, unholy water is only useful for making cursed objects. An exception might be for intentionally healing a demon, undead, or lycanthrope, such as a pet, or a chaotic player. Although the vast majority of objects in the game are better when they are not cursed, there are some exceptions to this rule, and it is these exceptions that are of interest here. * Cursed scrolls of teleportation allow a player to level teleport, which is often more useful than normal teleportation. * Cursed scrolls of genocide allow a player to summon a number of monsters of his/her choice, which is occasionally useful (see reverse genocide). * Cursed scrolls of destroy armor can produce fooproof armor. * Cursed scrolls of gold detection can detect traps or magic portals. Note you can also get this effect from confused non-cursed gold detection, and the traps will not show up as gold. * Cursed scrolls of enchant armor or scrolls of enchant weapon can lower the enchantment level of armor or weapons. This is occasionally useful if you want to (for example) raise a weapon's enchantment from +6 to +7, since the only safe way to do so requires first lowering the enchantment to +5. However, in most cases the best way to lower enchantments is to use #engraving or drain life. * Cursed potions of gain level allow you to ascend dungeon levels. * Cursed scrolls of create monster will create much more monsters (or acid blobs), useful for sacrifice. * Cursed scrolls of confuse monster will confuse you. Combined with an non-cursed scroll of gold detection, this is the safest way to detect the endgame portals. * Pets will not pick up cursed items and will avoid walking over squares containing cursed items. A stack of darts, arrows, or rocks can be cursed and used to activate many Elbereth squares without the risk of a pet picking up the item or smudging the engraving. This can also be used to temporarily block your pet from entering an area, e.g. to prevent a strong pet from attacking a shopkeeper or priest you want to keep alive. If only a single square needs to be blocked off then the potion of unholy water itself can be used. * A cursed unicorn horn is an unlimited (albeit dangerous) source of confusion for illiterates and speed runners. Forgotten spells are better for everyone else. * The cursed Book of the Dead can level up pet purple worms pretty fast. Obtaining unholy water One way is to grab it from a bones pile: it is likely that water dropped from a previous player will be cursed, and thus unholy. Bones containing dead priest(esse)s are especially good sources, as their starting potions of holy water might have become unholy. With that first potion, it is easy to make more unholy water by dipping a stack of a few uncursed potions of water into unholy water. Praying at an altar not of your alignment with potions of water on the altar is another method to make unholy water, but this will anger your god with the usual consequences. You can offset the anger point in a number of ways, such as by sacrificing a former pet on the cross-aligned altar (this neither converts the altar nor consumes the corpse nor angers a tending priest, but has its own disadvantages), but you will still have suffered the loss of any divine protection in addition to the harmful effects being smitten. The safest way is to read a blessed scroll of remove curse while confused, which has a 25% chance to either bless or curse the uncursed items in your inventory, and hope that this curses some potions of water. To avoid accidentally cursing useful items, either drop all uncursed items you do not wish to make cursed or read a second blessed scroll of remove curse after dropping all unholy water. To increase your chances of getting unholy water, have many potions of water and individual-name each one with a different name so that they don't stack. This method has the added benefit of potentially created holy water, which is also useful. Yet another way is to wish for cursed potions of water. A final method is to dip a potion into a fountain twice in order to dilute it; there is a chance that the resulting potion of water will be cursed. Be prepared for the monsters this can summon. Diluting Unholy Water Unlike most cursed potions, dipping unholy water will not cause it to dilute and lose its cursed status (becoming an ordinary potion of water). Cancellation will result in uncursed potion(s) of water, as will dipping a stack of unholy water into a potion of holy water (but this consumes the holy water). See Also * Holy water, which shares many properties * potion of water Unholy water